Rural hospital sells its facility in hopes of becoming more efficient

COLUMBIA - A Kansas City company is working to make health care more efficient in Cooper County by constructing a new, smaller facility for Cooper County Memorial Hospital.Rural Health Group - Consolidated bought the hospital for $3.9 million last week.The number of beds will be reduced, according to Mike Conway, a former member of the board of trustees."The new hospital, when built, will be a minimum of 8 beds. We are actually licensed I think to over 50 beds at the hospital now but we probably have an average acute care since then somewhere between 3 or 4 so we don't need as many beds as we had," he said.The hospital has been looking for a partner for the past three years. It is a stand alone rural hospital. Conway said it "felt the need to be a part...